REVIEW: Ignite Me by Taherah Mafi

Edition: Allen & Unwin Australia Paperback
Release Date: February 26th 2014
Pages: 408
Series: Shatter Me/The Juliette Chronicles #3
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Source: Received as an ARC from Allen & Unwin Australia (Thank you)
Links: Goodreads | Author's Website | Buy the book

The exciting and chilling conclusion to the internationally successful Juliette Chronicles series. With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn’t know if the rebels are alive. But that won’t keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world … but that’s not all he wants with her.

"Fear will learn to fear me"

Ignite Me was everything I could have wanted and more. It was practically perfect in every way. If you haven't read the two books prior to Ignite Me, there may be some minor spoilers. But there will be no Ignite Me spoilers in this review. A review that I don't know how I'll begin. But, let me start by saying that this is how you end a series *cough* Veronica Roth *cough*. Tahereh Mafi is a master of storytelling, her words are so beautifully and uniquely strung together. The writing style is so different from anything else I've ever read, which is one of the things that makes this series stand out.

Ask Francoise, I was originally going to pace myself but do you know how hard that was? The pages were practically turning themselves. Although throughout the course of two different days, I read it under 24 hours. So obviously my plan worked well. Seeing Juliette develop and become stronger as a character was such an awesome experience. Juliette was a character I originally found weak but she really proved everyone wrong. She Ignited. She feels like a little sister and I am so proud of her. I have so much respect and admiration for her.

For me, the characters were what really made Ignite Me. It's such a character driven novel. Before I explode whilst talking about one certain relationship, let's discuss Kenji. Can we all just take a moment to bask in his awesomeness? Kenji, I have always loved you, but man did that love grow! You continued to take your down right hilariousness to another level. We really got a close look at the strong friendship Kenji and Juliette shared and it made me so happy. Kenji's so loyal and just effortlessly funny. Some of his one liners had me on the floor totally cracking up. I honestly think I should name my child in his honour.

You may have heard, but the love triangle in this series is just so full of feels. I was originally team Adam and very happy with my plan to hate Warner. But then crap happened and I was converted and totally conflicted. Warner? Adam? I honestly didn't know. But after reading both novellas and Unravel Me, I was team Warner. But I still wanted Adam to be happy. But that totally flew out the window in Ignite Me. I wanted to slap that hoe. Can I say that? Sorry team Adam members. I tried, I really did, but god he angered me. Warner on the other hand? Let's just say, Warner officially moved to the top 5 Book Boyfriend list.

The feels where everywhere, I couldn't hide from them. My fangirl heart exploded, multiple times. Taherah, thank you. Thank you for giving us exactly what we want! I actually didn't think I could handle Chapter 55. I was actually surprised how descriptive that part was. The feels had me like:

My only complaint and it doesn't even factor when compared to all the goodness, is that I felt some really important action scenes were rushed. They happened really quickly and seeing as they were such important scenes, I wanted more. I was happy with the ending, very. But a part of me feels like we should have been told a little more about what happens next and the other feels like it was a good point to end Juliette's story.

This series is amazing and I can not recommend it enough. It is a favourite series of mine and I will not rest until it is a favourite story of yours. If you haven't read book one or two yet, what are you waiting for you? If you haven't read Ignite Me, be very excited. I am extremely sad to see this series end but I feel like it was a perfect and beautiful way to end the series. So to end this review, I just want to thank Taherah. Thank you so much for sharing your words with us. They have more meaning than you'll ever know.

“Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures.

No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words will stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and failing to rip their skeletons from our flesh.”

― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

Ps. It was really funny because I received two different editions in one day, my hardback preorder and a surprise review copy.